Tides of Change
by Trekcross
Summary: Will a Federation and Klingon Crew be able to work together as they discover another parallel Galaxy that is all Human, and a very different set of Technology.
1. Prolog

Captains Log, Stardate 2865.3 Jacob Monroe Captain U.S.S. Palomino

The Palomino is currently three weeks out of Federation space heading to an unknown anomaly that long range probes have detected near a fairly young star cluster. Readings are almost identical to those taken by U.S.S. Enterprise in Tholian space when the U.S.S. Defiant disappeared 20 years ago. We recently lost contact with one of the probes assigned to map the area. We have been assigned to observer the area affected and to place warning buoy's, but not to try to penetrate any of the affected space our self's. We have been assigned 4 weeks to take readings and monitor, before returning for a small refit and duty back on the Klingon Frontier.

Personal Log,

The crew is really looking forward to some scientific study as most of our last six months has been dedicated to monitoring cloaked ships along the Neutral Zone. Though, word is that with the current peace trends, the neutral zone may be dissolved within the next few years. Word is we may be rotated to monitor more along the Romulan boarder, or allowed to actually get to do some scientific mission utilizing the Clark Class's advanced sensor suite. The change of pace is actually quite pleasing to captain and crew. End log.

Captain Jacob Monroe leaned back in his chair with a sigh. One of the new things that Star Fleet was building into ships was a captain's office off the bridge. The name that stuck was Ready Room, as many joked that the Captain was ready to run to the bridge. Many officers decorated with their own personal style, this room was pretty stark except for a large picture of his family across from his desk. Taken a year earlier with him, his wife and two children at Starbase 22 on leave; it was soon to be replaces after the Palomino's three month overhaul was done and a new picture from the family's next vacation would replace it.

He was ready to check the family travel itinerary again for the twentieth time when the chime to his door beeped.

"Enter" he said as the ships Dr. entered the room. "Doctor, what can I do for you?"

T'par, the Vulcan medical officer sat easily in one of the seats provided for guests as she handed a PADD to him. T'Par was a ravishing red head Vulcan who had lost her husband during the attack on Earth by the Whale Probe. His ship was one of the few that rescue crews were unable to get too before full power failure. At close to six foot, the first officer had commented that in the late 20th century, she would have been a bathing suit model.

The Captain took the PADD and quickly browsed it, before raising his eyes.

"Theragen? Why the hell do you need Theragen for? Isn't that a deadly Klingon nerve agent?"

"It is, but according to Dr. Mcoy's report attached to the incident, the space affected the crew of both the Defiant and Enterprise with violence, and an ethanol based derivative of Theragen is what was found to counter the effects."

"Do you have all you need to manufacture this derivative?" he asked, bringing up his one desktop unit and loading the report from the file sent with the mission Brief.

"Affirmative, we have enough to last one week in addition to the projected mission specs." She replied folding her hand in her lap. "I believe we could have the required dosage all processed before arrival, and if more is needed for and extended stay, we could easily make the difference without taxing ships stores."

The Captain spent several moments reading over the medical report before picking up the PADD and signing his approval for the project.

"There you go Doctor, just be careful with it is all I ask." Handing the PADD back to her he asked. "Is there anything else?"

"Nothing more from me at this time." She said.

"Good, have you and Commander Ryan had a chance to look over the ship efficiency reports from departments this month?"

"We finished them late yesterday. The ship and crew are operating at standard or above in all areas, Moral is still high, most due to the extended leave approaching. There has also been a noticeable increase in work based reading and study in long term exploration, first contact and landing party procedures, as the crew brushes up on a focus for exploration. Apparently, as Commander Ryan said, many of the crew plan to "hit the books" during the break."

"Good, very good. We might want to make sure we plan some qualification exercises as well as rotation for Landing Party when we get back. So, have you decided how you will spend your leave?"

"Commander Ryan and I will be going to Vulcan. He has expressed an interest in the Vulcan Forge and wishes to visit. I have offered to escort him." She said with an emerald blush on her cheeks.

"Another one of his Extreme Survival exercises I assume?" Said the Captain refraining from smiling. He had noticed the budding relationship, as had most of the crew, but all respected her privacy to make a big issue out of it.

"Yes" she replied, the blush quickly disappearing. "I have offered to show him the dangers and survival techniques Vulcans have developed for several weeks, and then allow him to venture on his own for three days. Even though he may know the skills, his human lungs will need much longer to acclimate to the environment to allow for the reduced oxygen levels to go past that."

"I am glad this time he has an expert with him, the delay of his returning last time from his attempt to survive on Andor's surface and the two extra weeks it took him to recover from frost bite was a mild irritant." The captain commented.

"Indeed, but their techniques were able to save his arm and legs intact without having to resort to implants." She said. "I will be monitoring him closely so to avoid any long term health issues."

"Very good, now we just have to get this mission done." Said the captain "unless you have anything else Doctor, I would say start working on your concoction."

The Doctor left and the captain began working on several reports he had put off to kill time. He had been working for about thirty minutes when he received a com alert.

"Captain here, what is it?"

"Science Officer Sir, I am picking up what appears to be a sensor shadow following us. Seems to be a cloaked ship, from the energy readings we are getting, it appears to be a Klingon ship, most likely a scout of some sort from the size."

"I will join you on the bridge."

The Captain rose and exited the ready room to the bridge and quickly made his way up to the science station. The Science Officer, an Edoan with three arms named Maltavis was quickly adjusting several knobs on his Dynoscan and looking into it.

"So what do you think, able to ID her?" he asked.

Part of the Palomino's mission was to try to not only track cloaked ships, but to also try to build a database to see if there were any readings that could be taken to be used to identify individual ships. The Federation Database over the last two years had been able to build a small listing of known ships and their signatures.

"I will tell you here in a few seconds." Said Maltavis.

At that moment the bridge turbo lift opened and the ships first officer stepped in. A human of African descent with coffee colored skin and sharp bright ebony eyes. Victor Matongo came up to the science console and looked over Maltavis's shoulder.

"Word is we got a stalker following Captain." He said.

"Looks like it Victor, she is keeping distance trailing, and trying to act like a shadow." Said the Captain watching the monitor, "Maltavis is trying to ID her now."

"And we have ID, IKS Stormfront, S-12 class Klingon Scout under the command of Captain Kalaktor."

"Kalaktor, oh boy this will be fun then." Said the Captain with a smile.

"Indeed, we owe him for that last mission we had where he left us with those Orions ships." Said Victor with a grin.

"I agree, what is the best way to say Hello?"

With a grin the first officer looked at the Captain and in a Scottish accent said "One single Ping, for range."

"Oh wicked Idea, I like it." Said the Captain with a grin. "Maltavis, is there a way to simulate the affect of a sonar hitting the ship and rattling it?"

The Edoan looked deep in thought, trying to figure out a way to achieve the requested task when a twinkle in his eye he made some quick adjustments to the sensors and looked at the two commanding officers. "Ready at your command."

"Fire" said the Captain.

A few moments later the Andorian at the communications console looked up.

"Incoming message from the IKS Stormfront for you captain."

"Put it on the screen Lt. Shran." Said the Captain with a Grin

The view came to life with the image of a Klingon of young age sitting at his chair with a grin on his face.

"Captain Monroe, should have known we would have had a hard time sneaking up on you."

"Captain Kalaktor, it is a pleasure to see you again. I assume you have a hint of our mission and are supposed to investigate as well?"

"Yes, more so the curiosity of why the cure for this space anomaly is one of the empires strongest nerve agents and to find out if we are affected as well."

"Well there are worse people I could imagine tagging along. Why don't you turn off the power waster, and catch up. Believe it or not, those group of Orion's you left us with last time had some contraband 1956 Blood Wine that I have in storage for a appropriate moment. I think that would be now."

"1956, that is a good year. I shall beam over as soon as we catch up with you. Kalaktor out."

The Captain looked at his First Officer. "Kalaktor."

"I know" he said "This should be fun."

Monroe and Kalaktor had an interesting history together. Both had begun service as intelligence officers in their individual governments, and had first met when both governments were investigating a Romulan plot and meet during their individual investigations. With the defeat of the plan after working together, the two actually became fast friends keeping in touch. Both shared in that they were married to members of the Diplomatic corps, and were able to arrange to get together occasionally. The wife's and kids of course were able to meet up more and both families had grown fairly close together, though his wife's father, a veteran of the Four Year War with the Klingons still have strong reservations. The two were in the Captains personal Quarters with a small cask of Blood Wine and catching up.

"So Tomak is preparing for his Age of Ascension this summer, and inquired if Robert will be coming." Said Kalaktor as the two each dipped their mugs in the cask to refill.

"As of now, we all plan to attend. Sarah has cleared all the red tape for the family. In fact, she found out that Robert had acquired a pain stick from someone and was actually using it on himself. " He took a sip of the wine, "or should I say found him knocked out beside it after he used it."

"Ah, do you think he will try to declare also?"

"We have discussed it, and if he feels he can do it, we will allow it. How will those in the empire react?"

"If he fails, there will be some ridicule but acceptance as he is Human, but if he succeeds, he and your family will have much honor among our people for the achievement."

"Means also I will have to get him a Bat'leth and began some training in the serious martial arts training." Sighed Monroe, "Grandpa is really going to complain about this one."

During the Four year war with the Klingons, Monroe's father had commanded the third Ares class ship off the assembly line, the USS Hephaestus. Though the ware ended not long after, he did have a major part in the Battle of Axanar at the end.

"Just tell him it is the same concept of….how was it…Cowboys and Indians. Kids wanted to play and someone has to be the other side." Said Kalaktor with a smile.

"Right, Personally I am liking this bit of a peaceful turn of our governments, the tribute your warriors sent to Star Fleet after Kirks loss even with his involvement in the Kitamerh Crisis really was a turning point I think."

"It will still be a rocky road my friend, there are many hard core Klingons who feel our Warrior Pride and might is being threatened by peace. But hopefully missions like this where we together though assigned different orders, work together to solve a mystery. Though yours is probably more to investigate and place warning bouys, mine is to see if the space affects Klingons the same way it affects Humans."

"I know our two crews get along well, but might be a good idea to if at the first signs of irritability that your crew pull back as we test to see if the Enterprise Fix works for both races."

"Agreed. Nervous and agitated Klingon hands on a weapons console are not a good thing. Oh by the way, when did you detect our ship?"

"About 6 minutes before we pinged you. Science reported it and we saw it was you."

"Ahh, interesting. That was when I had my Science officer switch off the new cloak for the old one. We had been following you about 8 hours." He said with a Grin.

"Oh, no you didn't. Do you know the paperwork you just put me into having to notate that?"

"I figure it will give you science officer some fun looking in the old logs to detect us and at least give you something to work out too."

"Remind me next time, your supplying the blood wine then" said the captain with a frown.

"Deal," said the Klingon with a laugh.

An hour later the Captain beamed his friend over and as he was leaving the Transporter room, the First Officer joined him.

"Good visit sir?" asked Victor

"Indeed, always is, though I am not sure if he is throwing us a hering or not, he said they were on a second device before following us and had switched to their old one at the time we detected them. Not sure if we can take it serious or not, but better go ahead and have the Science section go over the readings for at least an hour before we detected them."

"Aye sir, see in you the morning."

"Till morning"

Meanwhile on the Klingon ship, Kalaktor was visiting with his first officer.

"Did your visit go well, sir?"

"Indeed, we went through a good deal of the blood wine he had. And it was a good year."

"Will there be any other visits or other items I need to be aware of?"

"Three days till we get to our destination, probably so. You know how Starfleet loves their planning sessions. Oh, notify High Command, we have confirmed they can detect our cloaks. They had us pegged as soon as we came in range. But, threw a little lie to them, let them think we were monitoring them for a while and then switched cloaks"

They both laughed going down the corridor to the bridge.

Author's Notes:

The USS Palomino is a Clark Class Scout, designed by Glenn Gagnon, for stats see the following site.

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Also please let me have feedback on your thoughts. Criticism welcome.


	2. Chapter 1 - Discovery

Chapter 1 – Discovery

Three days later, both ships slowed down and began a slow approach to the area. Long range scans had already determined that there was a steady phase of the space around the area of about thirteen hours phasing in and out. Also a large object suspected to be a ship was on the other side of the anomaly that both ships were eager to investigate.

"Captain, we are within range of the interphase affects where Enterprise recorded that the first instances of the affects started to take effect." Said the Science officer.

"Noted, Medical have your teams ready to distribute shots if the affects began to affect our crew. Kalacktor, let me know how your crew is doing and we will move off too if needed."

"Affirmative, I show 6 minutes till the next phase is that agreed?"

"Confirmed we will hold here and have full scanning during the initial phase, once the space phase ends, we will take a look at that other object and see what we find."

"Agreed. Standing By."

"Science what do you have on that object?"

"Mass of 120,000 tons, about 320 in length and no power readings. No detectable life signs or weapons from this distance.. No known Configuration either in any of our databases." Said Maltavis.

"Well, a real mystery on our hands. How far off is it from the anomaly?

"Looks like it is holding a stationary position about half an AU away. Probably just outside the range of the affects of the anomaly on a species. Captain, beginning to pick up traces of Neutreno and Tachyon particles increasing. "

"Captain, I just got a message from the Doctor, she reports two crew members off duty reporting to sick bay with feelings of anger from no source. Treated with antidote and both reported feeling better. She recommends all Human crewmembers be inoculated starting now." Said the Andorian at communications.

"Proceed as she feels best, advice all non-human crew members to continue monitoring their responses."

As the crew watched, a physical wavering tear appeared in space before them. The rippling affect seemed to dance before their eyes as a yoman from Medical came to the bridge and began to give the Human crewmembers the antidote.

"Helm, prepare to launch a Class 5 Probe, set it up for Forty-Eight hours of surveillance and launch to the heart of the anomaly. Kalactor, any Recommendation from your end?"

"So far no emotional outburst from the crew, all holding steady. We are also going to launch a probe; it does a continual mapping of the region of space. Let us know when it closes what the space looks like on the other side."

"Very well. Ours will monitor for radio, sub-space and other communications. Should be an interesting comparison with both results once done."

"Captain, do you have clearance for information for Gateway?" asked the medical Yoman after she gave the shots looking at the screen.

"Gateway? Not familiar with the name." he said trying to remember the name.

"It was a planet discovered by Enterprise under Kirks first 5 year mission. Was a deserted world with ruins, but among them a powerful archway that was able to access any planet or time with a request. I served there with a research team for about 6 months and remember that when the arch was activated, it looked a lot like the affect we are seeing now."

"Science, Pull it up see what the computer says."

The Edoan reached up and began pulling up data "Sir, there is a security lock, your eyes only request of Command Level before release of information."

The captain arose from his chair and approached the science station. A Quick Retina scan and verification code and the information began to flow from the computer. Both he and the science officer read the material on the Guardian of Forever and the known issue of the Time Travel and incidents that occurred.

"Science Compare the readings that the Guardian planet puts off to the readings we are getting from the anomaly." Said the Captain.

"Same type of rays, lot more concentrated and higher in Tachyon side though." He began to look through the Dynascope with the blue ray hitting his face. "Would be interesting, could an alien race have found an anomaly and used it to create a machine to access time and space?"

"Interesting Theory. Get an abbreviated report, cut out all the sensitive stuff and forward a copy over to Captain Kalactor." The Captain said.

"Federation Secrets your letting me on too?"

"Yea, but I think you should know what I know so we can weigh our options. I wonder if this may go to a where and a when possibly. Those star charts you get might help with that. What are the reading from the probes?"

"Our s is showing a dual signal coming through mix of many signals. It does looks like another area we are getting readings from. Be interesting to see if it downloads anything special during the phase out."

"This is Science Officer Motal, our probe is getting the same readings, mixed views of stars as if overlapping images."

"So looks like for sure the other end is somewhere else."

"Readings starting to Waver, looks like the anomaly is closing." Said the Federation Science officer. It is closed and both probes have quit transmitting.

"Well, we got thirteen hours till the next phase, lets go check out that ship. Helm, set a course, one third impulse." Science, keep me a running dialog as you get readings.

"Aye sir, approaching now. Not sure if a warship, but it seems to have some thick armor, Iron-Carbon compound, able to take a little damage. No weapon ports at all. Maybe a transport or cargo ship. Looks like about 2 other ships mounted on it. Possible landing ships? There is one other hookups as well for one more. Possible invasion ship or suppression ship. No known type of drive or power readings, atmosphere carbon filled, will need suits to go over there. Very toxic."

"Would we want to access from one of the access ports or beam aboard?" asked Kalactor.

"Board her, if she is derelict we do not want to take the chance of beaming into loose items floating around. Lets take a close up look at one of those huge landing ships and the empty port."

The helm officer moved the ship closer to one of the landing ships and the empty port next to it. The two ships docked looked to be of two different types, one a large oval shame, the other looked like a large terrain airplane."

"Unlike the mother ship, the landers seem to be fairly heavy armed, mixture of laser and ballistic weapons."

"Looks like an invasion type setup for sure." Said the Captain, "get to orbit and drop down to control and area."

"Look at the open ring, the airlock is open, looks like part of the ship is decompressed." Said the helm officer as the viewscreen view changed."

"That's not all," Said Kalaktor, "zoom in to the writing on the hatch, I think that is your human English?"

The viewscreen zoomed in to a multi-language sign, with one saying in English, Airlock Cycle Controls."

"Well now if that is not a surprise, looks like Russian and either Japanese or chines or both and Spanish." Said the First Officer looking at the writing. "Could there be an unknown colony out this way that we do not know about that already has their own ship program?"

"Not sure, but I bet the answer is on that ship." Said the Captain standing up

"Kalaktor, two five man groups? Two enginers from each crew as well as two security officers and a captain each?"

"I was hoping you would not leave us out of the exploration of this ship." Said Kalaktor with a laugh. "Lets add a third team, chief Engineers, and get a group to look at the Engine room too. Then the other two can look at the bridge and one of the landing ships respecivly."

"Sounds like a plan. Meet over here with your teams and gear in about 30 minutes and we can take the "San Palo" over to dock with it."

"Agreed, see you in Thirty."

Thirty minutes later, the teams were organized an aboard the transport shuttle San Palo. The ship had a generic docking collar on the back to allow docking with multiple ships types of ships. The Klingons were also adjusting to the antidote as several of them started feeling the effects of the space between the set up on the mission. All going were Inoculated, and an additional Klingon medical officer added since no one knew how long the affects and antidote would work on them. The three groups were getting to know each other, the security teams were weighing each other's metals, the Engineers were talking shop as they all got their gear ready. The Starfleet teams has also brought along several portable generators in hope the tech was compatible enough to run computer systems.

With everyone boarded, it was a smooth takeoff and quick flight to the strange ship. The docking was completed quickly and several of the engineers worked to get power to the air lock and had it functioning and able to close, sealing the ship. Kalaktor and his team were making their way to the largest of the ovoid ships while Monroe and his team made their way to the ship bridge. The two Chief Engineers made their way to the ships engine room. One of the first things they discovered were hand holds along the travel corridors. None of the ship showed signs of artificial gravity plates and all travel was in zero G.

Captain Monroe's team found lots of evidence of fighting, scorch marks and bullet indentions on the walls leading up to the bridge. The bridge itself was sealed and took about 5 minutes to cut through, but when they did, they found one person mummified, with an old style ballistic pistol in his hands. The Engineers each quickly got to work finding power sources and getting the generators up and working. Soon the consoles began to glow. Found on the end of the ship, the bridge was circular with controls around much like a federation bridge so not a lot of people were needed to operate. They soon found the captains log, the remains they found were him. Captain Roland Romanov, of the Comstar Exploration Services ship Magellan.

While the engineer was getting the log to load, one of the Human security officers came to the captain with the pistol found on the ship's captain.

"Sir, I am a bit of an expert on most Smith and Wesson fire arms, but this is one I have not seen, even though it has the makers mark." He said holding it out to the Captain with the mark on the handle. "could it have been a one off or test make, but I bet you will not find anything in their records on it."

Captain Monroe took the gun and held it in his hands, the weight was heavier than the standard phaser. "Thanks Lt, keep in for now, we will run it when we get back."

"Kalaktor to Monroe"

"Monroe here, find anything good?"

"I think you need to come up here, we are in the large ovid ship. As soon as you can."

"Ok, they are still getting into the ship logs, I am on my way."

He turned to the Starfleet Security officer. You stay here I'll take your partner here to see what Kalaktor found. Let me know when you find something.

"Aye Sir."

Monroe and the Klingon Officer shot down the corridors using the hand holds along the wall. . The Klingon showed that he could travel in Zero G quite well.

"I thought most Klingons did not do well in Zero G?" Monroe asked him as they shot down the corridors back the ships docking collars."

The security officer grinned and did a spin as he went down the tunnel. "Most of us don't, but I am one who enjoys it, and the captain makes sure most of the crew stays up to speed, never know when a ship will lose gravity. " He frowned a little "Lesson learned with Kronose 1 during the Enterprise incident."

"Sorry, did not mean to bring up bad memories." Said Monroe. "I actually met Gorkon back when I was still in Intelligence. When the Organian's granted the Federation Shermans planet and the Federation Council decided to keep it open to both races as a joint Scientific and Cultural planet. It was before he was the Chancilor, but he, Chang and Kor were all present. Kor was intimidating, massive presence of a Warrior. Chang, well he and my father spent the whole time debating battles of the Four year war. But Gorkon, he has presence to, but he came up to me, apparently had worked with my wife on several diplomatic missions and congratulated me on my choice of mate and discussed his future hopes. The Galaxy lost a good one with him."

The security guard paused to look at him before speaking. "I know your and my commander are good friends and have a good history, but not knowing many humans myself, I have to ask you what challenges are there for a Klingon in a new world with Federation Peace and exploration? Will the Warrior become a thing of the past?"

"I do not know what to tell you of the future for the Klingon people. We both still have the Romulan, we also have a new race I am hearing tales of, the Cardasians who are a little on the violent side, fighting or not, keep your honor. That is the true mark of a Klingon." Replied Monroe also pausing.

"I see the wisdom in your answer Captain. " he said and continued their journey.

Monroe followed him till they got back to the Collar junction where the Star Fleet officer assigned to Kalaktor was waiting, excitement in his eyes.

"Big find?" asked the captain as the two newcomers joined in behind him.

"You will just have to see sir, but yea, I think you would say so."

They soon went through the airlock to the landing ship and the Security officers pointed to another junctions.

"Off that way is a small hanger, has two small fighters in it. Looks to be fusion drives on them that give them power." He then pointed up a ramp "this way to the good stuff." The end of the ramp was a huge door.

The trio followed the ramp up to a central platform that was lowerd, but pushed off to the deck above. Kalactor stood to one side as they came up and he and the rest caught them, using the magnetic locks on their own boots to keep from flying away. As every one activated their lock to stand, he grinned at Monroe through his mask.

"Are you ready for the surprise my friend?"

"I am what did you find that has you so excited?"

Kalactor brought up his Klingon tricorder and pushed a button, pre-arranged lighting light up a monstrous robot in humanoid shape standing in a frame holding it in place. As he looked more light sprang up around, illuminating one after another till there were a total of 8 before him, several alike, but some bigger than others.

"Damn, giant robots, and from the looks of them armed." Said Monroe wondering what Genie they had just release from a bottle.

"Not Automated ones, they have to have a pilot. There are 8 down here, and four up the next level up. They use a mixture of Beam, Ballistic and missile weapons and would be a powerful force on a battlefield." Kalaktor added.

"I personal would hate to be on the receiving end of that. Ok, scan, document and lets see how much we can get in an hour, head back and get out of these suites and we can all convene and pull our resources to see what we have here. I am going to go back the bridge and see how that is going."

He paused to take one more look at the giant above him and wondered if there was a planet nearby building these things. He walked off shaking his head.


	3. Chapter 2 - The Briefing

Chapter 2

Three hours later, the group all joined at the Palomino's rec deck which had been converted to a buffet for all parties. The Klingons had provided Gauh and Targ which actually a fair number of Palomino's crew partook in, at least the not vegans members. Kalactor's crew were on a skeleton crew while most off duty were over participating. After the meal all set down as the Edoan science officer set up a prepared briefing.

"Gentle beings, thank you for your efforts today, all three teams brought us back some massive information and I have organized it here for you. The ship " as an image from the distance showed the full ship "is named the Magellan, in the place it comes from it is a Merchant class Jumpship, which I will go more into detail in a moment. She belongs to a group known as ComStar, a semi-religious group who control the communications where they are, and this is part of their exploration program. Looking for lost worlds and technology. Her last message was dated around 3047 which would line up with our 31st century, while we are only on the 23rd for Humanity." Said Maltavis.

A map was listed, showing color charts but many noticed that the planets all pretty much lined up with the current ones in their space.

"This is the map of their galaxy, from the anomaly is where they entered ours, so it is a parallel human galaxy, while the planets and systems are known, there are no other races. Klingons, Romulan, Vulcan or Orion do not exist here. Humanity has had the run of the whole system. This central region is the ComStar, which is what this ship belonged to. They consider themselves the guardians of Earth, and of technology. As I mentioned, they are somewhat religious and follow the teachings of a man named Blake. Around that, are several imperial house's that control certain spheres of influence, and around them, are what are called the Periphery."

He zoomed down to the bottom of the map that showed their location

"This is outside their usual exploration but they detected strange signals and apparently ran into the anomaly and ended up on our side." He paused to take a sip of water before continuing. Most of the Human history here follows the history of humanity on our side; the major shift is the Eugenics, and Colonel Greens uprising. Instead the Soviet Union did not fall but degraded to civil war. The west intervened and a new unified earth emerged. Fusion power became a reality and travel within the Terrain Solar system began. Once their technology was able to advance through the unified planet, sciences grew and the KF Drive, based of the research of earlier scientist, became reality. The drive takes up the entire central core of the ship out there. And a large part of it is batteries for storing the energy. There is a solar sail it can deploy within a system to charge the batteries over a lengthy time and once charged, the ship can jump, instantly to any coordinate within it reach within seconds, the biggest 375 seconds to go 30 light years."

Many in the room gasped. That would take several days to travel that by warp. Maltavis continued his discourse.

"The downside to this is the time to charge. We think that even using one of our ships, it will take three or four days to get up the power for one jump. The ship has a 50 kilometer solar sail that is usually deployed to gather this energy."

"The humans in this parallel quickly expanded and eventually developed an imperial like organization. The central core was the rulers, the outer states were the support and a huge force called the Star League to defend and enforce the rules. Some of these jumpships are massive warships that are kilometers in length. They carry the Dropship's to systems and attack with these."

The image went to one of the larger Mechs that they found in the jump ship. The camera panned around to several of the others in the bay. Many were seeing them for the first time.

"This is the Battlemech, the main battle force of this universe. The first one seen is a Centurion, a medium mech of about 55 tones, but they have heavy Mechs that are rated at 75 tons and the Assault mech, which is not part of this but we found this image. "The image switched to a huge mech wadding in to battle with other mechs, towering over them, the head painted like a skull. Massive beam weapons and other weapons spewed from it. "This is what is called an Atlas and you can see, it is a frightful thing to watch. The warriors of these mechs are the elite of this galaxy and during the years of the Star League they were used to bring the area outside of the Periphery in line. One man murdered the ruling family and took over. The leader of the Star League a pursued back to earth, and once defeated this individual, the other states could not choose who of them would take over. The remnants of the Star League packed up and left the known space. The Successors States as they became to be known, up to this time, had fought 3 majors wars to see who will take over and not one of them has done it. Now the tech to build a lot of the major warships and Mechs has been lost, and thus this guy looking for anything to rebuild that lost technology and maybe find the lost Star League ships."

He paused as the history of this other Human culture sunk in. The Klingons were thinking a military human culture based on war, how would it have been to fight them. Many of the Federation were saddened by these distant cousins who never developed a Federation to guide them.

"In conclusion, the ship here detected the Anomaly and signals from it," continued Maltavis "They tried jumped to the location, and unsure they entered it, but unfortunately with their technology, they were unable to know they were taking a one way trip, due to the quantum signature of their galazy, it would not let them back in. They stayed there trying to get back when the affects of the anomaly took them and they started to kill one another. Some were trying to get the drop ships and that is when the captain cut power to them and opened the Airlock and took a majority of them out. The rest in some areas that were still sealed, including the Captain, died as the power and oxygen failed."

"Do we know how long the ship has been here?" asked one of the Klingons.

"At best guess, at least 25 years." Said Maltavis.

"You mentioned their technology would not allow them to cross back over, would we encounter the same issue?" asked one of the Starfleet officers from Medical.

"At this time we do not know, but the Captain has a remark about that in his closing staments."

After a few moments of no other questions, the Edoan stepped down and Captain Monroe stood up to the Podium.

"Lt, excellent presentation, thank you for putting it together for us in such a short time." He looked out at the mixed crew "I truly want to thank Captain Kalaktor and his crew for helping us in this venture. I know my crew would have been able to do it, but it cut some time having more hands available. Our little find has created quite a stir with both our governments. As you can imagine a new technology, who and how to share the discovery. As you can imagine, it is not easy to put a large Mech in a space ship and split the finds, especially with a scout ship. Since we are making this a joint discovery by both governments, we will be taking the next few days to run system test on the Magellan's engines and batteries as best we can from the information on hand, and will try to do a power transfer to charge the batteries'. It all checks out, then a volunteer crew will also look to take her to Shermans Planet, the 15 light year jump is well within the safety limits of this ship and with the dual scientific community there, we feel it is the best hands to put it in."

A round of applause went from the joint crew as they all felt this was a fair way to treat the ship as salvage if both governments's had a say on it.

"As to the question about going through and back. As Maltavis stated, there is an issue in the Quantum Signature that prevented them from going back in. What we are hoping and will be testing, is a Class 5 Probe with a shield on it. We are hoping to mask the quantum signature with the shields or adjust them to allow it to come back through. In six hours when the anomaly opens we will each get our probe reading for the ones over, and launch this one. Thirteen hours later, activate shields and fly it back we hope."

"Captain" asked the Klingon guard he had travelled with earlier while in the ship "do you have plans to go over to this other universe?"

"We can conditionally examine the possibility." Said Monroe, "and this is from both governments. We are going to make sure it is safe and we can get back. Once that is done, and confirmed, we will either get a go ahead or send a better equipped first contact operation at a later date. Me and Captain Kalaktor want to examine the Political aspect of this. From the way this galaxy is set up, we kind of feel that any meeting would possibly cause a firestorm of reactions with everyone looking to gain politically from meeting us. We are considering meeting one of the Perephery government or the ComStar group to introduce ourselves. This way they will know that there are other galaxies and in those galaxies, Humans are not al one. All academic, as we wait for the test."

"Enjoy any food left and get some rest, we are going to have some busy time next few days." He concluded.


	4. Chapter 3 - Back to Life

Chapter 3 – Back to life

Captains Log supplemental – our two ships are working now to bring the Magellan back to life. After the last Anomaly opening, we were able to confirm from the Klingons probe that the planets are about a century ahead of movement from our own time which seems to confirm there is a bit of a time factor in the connection of these two universes. So far the Magellan's batteries have all tested well, and from what our engineers can determine fully functional. We have moved the Palomino next to the power coupling used for charger stations and are directly charging the batteries. Even with power from the warp drive, it is going to take three days to charge these massive units.

Both ships Helm and navigators have been working with the engineers and scientist to figure out the coordination system used for the jump. We have been in contact with Sherman's planet to get details on the upper and lower Zenith and Nader of the sun to plot the arrival point. We have got our ten volunteers from both ships and Kalaktor and I have appointed his third officer, the young guard I met with, as the captain of the ship. His name is Warn and one of the backup helm officers from the Palomino, a Telerit name Govalaz, is his second. As can be expected, they have already butted heads a few times, but quickly resolved it without bloodshed. We have also determined that there are several other species including Telerite and Andorian that are affected by the local space affects so every evening we pull out beyond the affects so both ships. It slows the charging time, but the factor on the crews is more important.

Leaving his quarters, he inquired of the bridge for the first officer who he was told was over on the ovid Dropship with Kalaktor and several of the Klingon Scientist. Even though the ships now had Oxygen there was still the factor of Zero G, so all were required to were magnatic boots before they were beamed over. He headed to the transporter room and got a pair of boot for the beam over. When he materialized, he heard Victor calling over a communicator as he activated the boots.

"Ok, raise the right arm, and try to cross your chest." As the large Centurion Mech right arm reached out and extended, then slowly crossed the chest before returning to rest. "Perfect Captain, lets shut her down and check the readings."

Monroe noticed a lot of extra equipment also attached to the various parts of the Mech body and well as one scientist who was using a recording device to get detail pictures of the mechs. He went up to his first officer with a look that said "what are you up to?"

"Oh, Captain, glad to see you. Hope all well. Um, me and Kalaktor were doing some testing on the Mech's. He said he had a surprise for us, but needed my help to work all the kinks out."

"Jacob, you have got to try one of these out when you get a chance." Crowed Kalaktor with the Mech helmet still on his head from the test. "Apparently the Klingon brain is also able to control these devices and it is amazing."

Jacob looked up at the huge devices, the one next to the Centurion was called a Hunchback, due to the huge weapon on its shoulder. He did not quite get the excitement that the other two had in them.

"Maybe, before the launch. I have to say the damn things intimidate the hell out of me." he picked up the helmet looking at it. "I guess it scares me to think that there are some humans who never got to get along as we did in the Federation, they just never grew up."

"I think I understand." Said Kalaktor," Your Federation has built up a very powerful government, and its goal is to protect the people in it with peace to allow them to live their lives, and the leaders of this other reality, only care for their own self interest. Come with me to the Stormfront, I want to show you something. Commander, shall we continue here tomorrow?"

"Sure Thing, Captain, me and the scientist will continue our readings." Said the Palomino's first officer.

Kalaktor called for a beam over and when the two materialized, Monroe disabled the magnetic boots. The Klingon Officer saluted his captain and received acknowledgment "Have the bridge activate the Training room."

"Aye sir."

"Do you remember our early history , the first ship to explore from Earth, under Archer called Enterprise and the incident where the Chief Engineer got pregnant by an alien race and they had and encounter with a Klingon ship. To trade for their lives they gave the empire Holographic Technology? I know the Federation got it too, but we incorporated in much into our training. They arrived at a door with several weapons at the front. Taking a Bat'leth for himself and one for Jacob, he entered a sterile room with lines in a grid. Computer load Captains Calisthenics program 4, ignore the second being only I am the active participant. Jacob gasped as the room materialized into a swampy terrain with low fog. "Begin!"

Suddenly three pale faced creatures armed with sharp weapons appeared and attacked Kalaktor and the Klingon quickly brought his weapon up and began to counter and attack back. Jacob has spared with Kalaktor in the past, but he had never seen the Klingon in full lust of battle. His usually well maintained main of hair was flying as he blocked, attacked and spun around swinging the Klingon weapon with skill. Soon several more of the attackers began to appear and even the ones he defeated disappeared, more were soon following. With his skill and abilities, he was soon hard pressed. Jacob could not see his friend in such a state and spoke,

"Computer, add second Participant!" he yelled and with roar, jumped in the fray.

The two were soon back to back working in unison, though Jacob was not as proficient, he held his own, the weapons an extension of himself. For about ten minutes they fought before Kalaktor yelled "Computer, end program."

The room reverted to the grids and the two looked at each other. Kalaktor looked at him and he looked at his friend.

"I know you are worried about many things my friend. And I know too your reluctance to fight or get into battle, but when you saw me flagger, you jumped in." he took the Bat'leth and set it down, and placed his hands on his friends shoulders. "It is something my people are going to have to learn, that you already have in your heart. A warrior, sees those in trouble and comes to their aid. A warrior defends the home of his family and friends. He goes forth and explores the depths of the unknown or goes to see the mountains far away. That is why you are a Captain in Starfleet, and maybe, just maybe if we go to these other humans, you can show them the humanity they lack. Not to shame their warrior side, but integrate it to a purpose more conducive to the good of all."

Jacob Monroe looked at the man before him, and saw for the first time how his friend was also struggling with an unknown future, but determined to make the best and move forward. For his family, for his people this Klingon would venture to that brave new world.

"Message received and understood. Ok, so you feel that we will be giving orders to penetrate?"

"I could not give you the percentage as well as a Vulcan, but I feel it will be a high 75 percent. "

"I have to say I feel your probably running about the same odds I am. I just really do not like these successor states much as I read about them. Don't think I trust the ComStar any better. I think the two powers that we will come out near, The Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus. I think they are the better choices, more civilized of the outer governments."

"Agreed, lets go get you patch up and then we can get go see if your science officer has made any progress with the recordings we got form the probes."

"Patched up…" Monroe looked down and noticed there were several cuts on his side from the battle.

"Adrenaline is a wonderful thing, but in a short time that is going to hurt" said the Klingon who lifted his arm to show a wound he had received. "

"Training deck, neat idea, what is the danger threshold where it stops itself if your are in mortal danger?" he asked as they left the room.

"There is no safety threshold, you stop it when it get too much or…" He shrugged.

"Really, no safety," He stopped and looked at Kalaktor, "you and Victor, your not trying to gather info on those mech's and trying to put them in this little program are you?"

The Klingon Captain actualy looked embarrassed "well, I knew that there is not planet to get them down to right now, and if I every wanted to play with one..." and he shrugged his shoulders.

"Son of a Bitch, Boys and their toys, do the Klingons have a saying about how men never grow up, their toys just get bigger?" Monroe asked as they walked down the Corridor to the Klingon Med Bay.

"I do not think so, but why would you call a Mech a Toy?" he asked Confused.

"Patched first, then will explain over some fresh Targ." Monroe said as the door closed behind them.

After the grumpy Klingon Medic patched them up and Monroe explained the concept of grown mean never giving up the things they play with and getting bigger toys at they grew tickled the Klingons sense of humor, though he did not confirm or deny this own feelings on the subject. He did promise that he would have some safety features put in if any of the Humans wanted to test it once the Training room program was up and running. They then returned to the Palomino to check what the communications Dump from the probe staff had learned. The Communication officer, the Andorian Shara T'nara meet with the two captains in one of the briefing rooms.

"Captains, first I want to show you a map of powers when the ship came over 50 years ago." She brought it up showing the main powers , the central core with Terra in the middle and the outer systems. "This it more or less how it looks now, but seems to be changing daily. This wedge at the top, Apparently their Star League came back in the manner of a force known as the Clans. They were better armed, and they came in to take back the inner sphere area. Several small governments, and the Draconis Combine and Lyran Alliance areas took the biggest hit. ComStar apparently brought all their technology to bear, they had a stockpile of their own Star League era equipment and challenged the clans to a battle, in winning it, they won a small peace for the other systems. Alliances built up, alliances fell, ComStar had the more religious elements break off to form the "Word of Blake" which seems to be Terrorizing everyone."

"The Clans are in no better shape, They have lost a lot of their leaders, some even have been split apart and in fighting among themselves have left them a mess too. Fortunately the two governments you're interested in, The Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus have both formed an alliance and are both out of the fray and seem to be doing well with their own growth. I agree they are stable areas to go and meet first."

"Do you think we can send a message just to them once we come through and start a dialog with them?"

"Should not be a problem at all, the Hypergenerator they use for communications is basically a form of subspace. We should get a burst to let them know we are coming and at least have an idea how they feel about it before we get there."

"Good, OK, lets get the report to both Governments and make plans for the trip, that we both feel will be approve, especially if the next window the shielded probe can come back through."

"Will we let them know about different races before time or when we get there?" asked Kalaktor

"Before, I think they will be a little taken aback if Humans, Klingons and Vulcans all descended at one time."

"Then I will report to my government, and then head over to see how the reading on the mechs are going"

"G'night my friend, tomorrow will be a busy one" said Monroe as the two went their own way.

 **Next Chapter, I plan to switch it up and go more from the Klingon Perspective.**


	5. Chapter 4 - Back to Life Cont

Chapter 4 – Back to Life Continue

Kalaktor, Son of Galor, woke the next morning and rose in his room. The Spartan quarters made him wish for his wife's touch as it did many mornings while on patrol. He quickly got his uniform on and went to the ship mess for breakfast. The off shift crew were singing a song as he entered. It was an old one, telling of Khalas forging the first Bat'leth from a lock of his hair in fiery lava. Warn, the one chosen for the command of the alien ship back to Sherman's Planet was singing with his deep base voice as several other accompanied him. He entered the room but stayed leaning against a support strut as he listened to tale of the Klingon hero beating it to the right shape, and testing the weight before going to hunt his brother who had betrayed him, Morath.

It was then that he noticed the Telerite Federation officer who was to be the second and a young Human female, who was one of the Federation members of the crew also were at the table absorbed in the story. The young woman reaching down absentmindedly and taking a Gauh worm and slurping it down as the story finished.

The crew and visitors all cheered and beat their fist on the table in appreciation of the song. Kalaktor decided at this moment to let his presence be know.

"Kia Officer Warn, A good Morning and welcome song to be greeted with first thing." He said with a salute to the officer.

"Kia Kalaktor, Captain of the Stormfront!" the crew responded.

"And to our visitors, we welcome you and I hope our Hospitality has been to your liking?"

"Captain Kalaktor, I can truly say no race in the Federation can argue as well and Win or Lose, know how to celebrate as well as the crew of the Stormfront" said the Telerite raising his drink in salute."

"I agree" said the Human female "I need to find out how to get this Raktajin once we get back."

"I am sure we can find a way." Said the Captain as he made his way to the galley and grabbed a tray with some food. As he returned Warn had also joined the table along with one of the only female members of his crew, the ships navigator Ursel and one of the volunteers to take the alien ship back home. The Captain took the last seat to join the crew members.

"How goes the preparations?" he asked as he dug into his targ leg.

"They are going well, the coordinates have been received and programed into the Navigation computer, and the batteries already show almost 1/3 charge. We are going to test the thrust engines today and we got the bridge gravity plating working. We hope to move the ship beyond the effects of the Anomaly, since our first reading on its range were wrong and thus allow to charge the ship at all times from the Palomino." Reported Warn.

"If you need anything from my end, let me know." Said Kalaktor, though I hope two more days will allow us to get all the info we need of the Mechs'" he sighed.

"Captain Kalaktor, Is it true that you are working on a Holographic simulation with the Mechs?" asked the Human female.

"It is Lt..?"

"Sorry sir, Lt. Suarez, sir." She replied.

"Lt. Suarez, yes it is something that we are working on. "

"Amazing, you got it already and on a scout ship. I have a friend in Utopia Planita that said they are looking at a similar thing on some of the larger ships, but nothing for the smaller ones yet." She informed him.

"It is fairly new to us as well, we only got it about 6 months ago. Our Medic complains about the room, but I feel it allows the crew to burn of well needed steam that builds up on a small ship that has to stay cloaked and quiet most of the time."

"I spent some time looking at those Mechs Yesterday, amazing the cabling that simulates muscular movement for them works. I think everyone on our ship is looking at the videos of the battles and is interested in them." She said. "If you need any help between my regular duties and those with the Magellan, let me know I would love to help with it."

"Of course, thank you Lt. Suarez." He said.

He listened to the other talk about the day's plans on the alien ship and finished his meal and left for the bridge. The quick walk through the ship ended at the door of the bridge, he entered and the First Officer turned from the Command Chair.

"Captain, Ship status all well." He said as he rose and took his position at the weapons console.

"Good work Second, how long till we move to the Anomaly?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"Communications, anything from Homeworld?"

"Nothing specific to us sir, there are some rumblings, about possible Romulan buildup on their boarder, but their claim they are doing war games, but there is serious concern on the starfortress's along the Kinshaya boarder. Reports are that several of their ships have been detected crossing the boarder. IKV Je'hatog reports encounter with two ships, one destroyed, the other fleeing. Je'Hatog took some damage to her warp nacelles but was able to return to base. Ships are put on alert in that area for a three ship patrol mandatory."

"The Ptak, maybe this peace with the Federation will allow us to take those ship and finally find their home world and finish them off." The Captain growled.

"Captain, the current situation has me wondering." Started the Science officer.

"Speak"

"What if they are using an anomaly like this, we have never detected any broadcasts, coherent messages that have allowed us to find them or any of their colonies. What if they are also from another Galaxy or dimension and are crossing over somewhere we just need to locate?"

"It might explain a lot, send your theory to the homeworld, maybe we can send a bunch of probes to detect and locate any openings if we need." He looked at the Science officer "Good thinking."

"Thank you sir,"

Kalaktor picked up a PADD on the edge of his command chair and began to go through it. It contained ship reports from the crew and any messages for the Captains eyes that came in with the communications burst. The burst noted that the "Gateway" planet was known to the Klingon Empire, though any thought of using it were pushed aside as several other time trips had met with such poor success. As long as the Federation did not try anything, they felt safe. There were some interest in the giant Mech's and any the Empire agreed that if the crossing could be made, that the travel to the other side was approved.

Kalaktor put the pad back in its slot and set back in his command chair. He closed his eyes and felt the hum and power of his ship vibrate through him. Though small the Scout still had a bit when provoked and with the aid of its cloaking device was still a good ship. He wonders if the Federation ship with a different Captain would have made this mission go as smooth.

"Sir, incoming transmission form the Federation Ship." His coms officer reported

"Display" he replied.

"Captain Kalaktor, good day to you." Said Captain Monroe.

"Same to you Captain Monroe, are we ready to move it today?"

"We are, I understand the jumpships crew have already meet up this morning on your ship."

"Yes, they were discussing moving the jumps ship and testing her flight engines today to move her out of the range of the anomaly's affect. Let you charge her longer and faster."

"Yea, also I got word a Mugie class supply ship is heading this way with some replacement crew members for both ships. They met up with another of yours ships along the way to replace the ones going back. They should arrive right before the jumpship leaves."

"That is good, we are not a big ship, and the crew could handle it, but rather not have too."

"Understood, we are beginning our approach and are starting inoculations."

"Confirmed. Medical, began crew inoculations, and also for our visitors." He ordered.

The two ships began their approach to the anomaly and the communications line was still open as his crew listened in to the Federations ship calling a halt near the edge of where the opening would appear in moments. He watched as the science officer put up a countdown clock next to the image of the space it would open and soon they saw the flash of color and the opening.

"Science, begin download of our probe and see if anything new has appeared." He ordered.

On the other ship, the crew made contact with their probes and also began downloads, as the second probe was brought online and its makeshift shields activated.

"Ok" Monroe said from his bridge "bring her up and back through the entry very slowly, lets see if we have any issues. Science, keep an eye on the shield harmonics and make sure they are aligned with the passage back to this universe."

The watched as the probe suddenly returned to its native universe, and came up alongside the Palomino. Monroe ordered the shields lowered on the unit and then had it beamed aboard his ship.

"Kalaktor, I guess we have the answer. Let's let the upper echelon know and start making plans for a trip over now in earnest."

"Agreed. Let's meet up this evening after the power engine tests and we have parked and are charging for the evening."

"Rodger that, see you soon." Monroe cut the connections.

"Com, sent to Homeworld the shield modifications will allow travel to parallel universe and that we and the federation ship will be looking to cross after the jumpship completes charge and leaves. Also inquire about crew that will be replacing and have bios sent." He ordered. "Helm, take us to the jumpship, lets deliver our crew and see if it has any spirit still in it to move."

"Aye Captain!" he said as the ship turned from the anomaly and to the jumpship. Rising from his seat. "Helm, you have Bridge command." And walked out the bridge.

He strode down the corridor to the transporter room where Warn and his crew were already mounting the transporter platforms.

"Good I caught you, contact me before you're ready to bring the engines on to move, I want to join you on the bridge." He told Warn.

"Yes Command, It will be done"

"Transport them Tech" the Captain said as they disappeared in the ruby effect of the Klingon transporter.

He then put on a pair of magnetic boots and mounted the platform.

"Send me to the smaller of the ships." He commanded.

"Yes Captain, Transport Now!"

He felt his body tingle all over before appearing on the deck of the other drop ship, he activated the boots and looked around. So far he was the only one to really come to the second ship, it being smaller but it had the largest of the mech's yet seen. He activated the lights for the bay and watched as each of the monsters lit up. The others in the Ovid ship were the light and medium mech's, these were the heavy hitters sent in to mop up and finish a fight. The Heavy Mech's he had learned while reading up on the information from the ships database. He looked at the King Crab Mech, the biggest one in the arsenal and walked up to the gantry that went to the head. The other three Mech were also huge, two of what were call Highlanders and one, from his reading was a very rare one, a Flashman. Apparently the ComStar kept a lot of secrets from the rest of the Inner Sphere across the anomaly.

But this gave him a very good chance to follow up on a mystery since the incident at the attempted assassination of Gorkons daughter and the discovery of elements of the Federation, Klingon and Romulan were all involved with keeping the Klingon Empire and the Federation at odds. Though many of the participants were revealed, there were word that a Klingon and Romulan faction were still working to weaken the Klingon government. Part of his re-assignment from intelligence to the fleet was to see if there were any within fleet who might be under this sway. So far he had found none, but with these Mech's, he knew once the information was released to the Council, each member would be marked and they would be able to trace the file if it were discovered in Romulan hands back through a sophisticated algorithm that were to be built into the files to be sent. Warn was one of his best operatives and would be in charge of accumulating and sending the information. Worf, of House Mog who was working with him was sure it was House Duras, but he was not so sure.

"Monroe to Kalaktor," chirped his communicator

"Kalaktor here," he replied to his device after lifting to his lips

"We are ready to move the ship outside the anomaly range, we will be ready to engage this old barges engines in about 30 minutes."

"I assume you will be in the ships bridge?"

"Of course, want to be at the seat of the action, though I assured Warn and his crew that they are in command, I am just an observer. "

"Be there before the launch. Kalaktor out."

He took one more look at the monster Mechs and hoped the lure was enough to pull his prey from the shadows as he turned the lights out and made his way to the bridge.

He arrived on the bridge and took one of the spare seats that was made available along side Monroe. Warn and the mixed crew were busy at their respective stations prepping the ship to move.

"Helm, I propose a 4 minute burn, with a pause for 10 minutes, followed by an alternating 30 seconds burn and pause for 6 minutes. Confirm."

"Confirm, Captain, programed for burns and ready to proceed on your command" said the Human female Lt Suarez.

"Warn to Engineering, Report." Ordered Warn.

"All engines are ready, Fuel seals are showing secure and all lines are green. We are ready to commence." Replied the Tellerite engineer.

"Thank you crew." He took out his communicator. "Stormfront and Palameno, we are ready to proceed, please move to a safe distance as we begin. Five minute warning. Warn out."

The Klingon Navagator Ursel and Lt Suarez finished their preparations as the counter worked down, when the indicator hit zero, Warn ordered "Fire Engines!"

All felt the ship vibrate as the engines kicked in and pushed the ship to a safe zone. Four the full length of the burn they felt the ship push them back in their seats till it cut off.

"Burn Successful," reported Suarez.

"Ship is on course," responded Ursula

"Acknowledge, prepare for Retro burns on forward thrusters alternating."

"Aye sir"

They soon felt the ship forward thruster's fire and the ship began to slow down. Once the ship's velocity stopped, the two woman looked at the captain.

"We have arrived sir," Ursel said.

"Very good. Stand down." Warn looked at the Palomino's Captain. "Sir, if you would have your ship take up position, and resume the power Transfer."

"Of course, right away."

"I will go visit with engineering to see how the engines did you two are free to go." He said to the Helm and Navigator before walking out.

"I see another good captain in the making in that one." Monroe said.

"I agree, he has some good linage for it, His Mother is from the house of Kor."

"Really? I would say good genetics indeed. By the way, got some news for you."

Kalaktor sat at the small desk in his cabin to record a message home as the day ended. He leaned back in the chair as far as it would let him and started a recording home.

"My Wife, I hope this message arrives to you in good health. I was informed by Jacob today that his father will be joining us for Tomark's Ascension rights. Jacob's son Robert has also chosen to participate and the Grandfather wants to be there to watch his grandson's performance. I want to give you the advanced of this situation. We have both spoken about what might happen, but we also know that Tomark and Robert have a unique relationship in that ever since Robert made him a Blood Brother from the earth rite. I am giving my full support as will Jacob that his son had the bravery to try even if he fails.

The mission here progresses well. If all goes to plan, in about a week we will enter the anomaly and will be out of communications for the time we are over. I will advise you when that time closes in. Success and victory my wife.

He leaned back with a sigh before settling to his bed.

Sorry for late getting this edition out so late, life has been busy and also working on a "to publish" story that has been going in my head several years I am still trying to flesh out and lots of stuff with kids and year end going on. Really had some issues with if I like this chapter or not….as is, I will leave it and hope you guys like.


	6. Chapter 5 - Twilight of the crossing

Ch. 5 – Twilight to the Crossing

Kalaktor sat in the cockpit looking at the passive sensor on his HUD as the Mech he was in began a power up. He heard as his translator informed him that the reactor came online and lights all over the HUD came up as systems powered up. The helmet and cooling vest he wore were stifling at first but he felt the vest quickly cool his body down, there had been some adjustments made vs the Human core and a Klingon Core were about 30 degrees different. He started to move the unit forward, a medium Mech called a Hatcheman was what he chose to use to get the feel of the units. The huge Ax in the right hand allowed for a powerful battering weapon. He took a swing with it and felt the unit fight inertia as he kept the unit balanced. He then took a deep breath and stepped forward and started walking to the first objective of the training exercise.

"How you doing up there Kalaktor?" asked Mason, who was driving a small scout called a Swiftwind about 40 meters to his left.

"Good, would be interesting to develop a Battle language for this as we do for ship combat." When Klingon warriors were in battle, clipped and abbreviated terms were used to minimize talk and get through the battle. "it is very disorienting at first but I think I got the concept."

He took a look at the heat gauge and moved the walk up to a small jog. The Destination on his HUD was about another mile and he did several sudden stops to make sure he could stay in control. He knelt down and practiced rising again and trying to do it fast, almost going over. By the time he got to the waypoint he saw several targets in the area.

"Ok from what I have read on the reading material, you will have a total of 20 targets, five close and stationary, five at a medium distance stationary and then 10 intermediate moving ones. Only one shot per target with the Autocannon, but you can also use the lasers as much as you want. I will start a counter on your HUD, begin when it reaches 0." Said Mason.

Kalaktor quickly cycled the presets for his weapons and as the time hit 0, he began to fire. The five close in targets were fairly easy, though not on center, they were all hits. Two rounds he hit with an Alpha strike of his lasers and the autocannon as his heat gauge wailed a warning before switching back to the Autocannon only for the moving targets. Moving his Mech also, His first two shots were very glancing, but the final few were dead on with several more laser hits thrown in. He was running towards the last target when he hit it and then swung the Ax also and hit it with a flash of sparks.

"Very nice! That is going to set a high bar for our crews." Said Mason.

"Yes," Said Kalaktor. "It was good this training videos were available to import into the Holodeck to test. They are very detailed."

"Yea and the one for the games, Solaris is it? Those are quite vicious to watch. Especially the grudge matches." Said Monroe as he set the Swiftwind behind, watching the huge Mech move forward. He saw the arms and moving left and right, as he was sure his friend was aiming at things as he walked past. The soon arrived at the base where a mobile gantry moved out and extracted the Klingon from the mech. His hair was plastered to his head with sweat and the cooling suit looked as natural on him as the leather armor he usually wore.

"End Simulation" spoke Kalaktor as the surroundings faded and the door appeared. Outside several crew from each ship, dressed similarly were waiting for their turns.

"The simulation is a success." Spoke Kalaktor as both captains addressed the crews. "I want to make sure everyone who has chosen to participate in these exercises has read up on the history of these units that both Captain Mason and I and that no one can start out in anything bigger than a medium mech and have to show a certain level of competence before the system will allow them to upgrade."

"We also know that both sides are going to be very eager to face off with each other and to develop some team competition. Just try not to carry it over outside the holograms suite. Ok, have fun." Said Monroe.

The two captains walked off as the excited crews started to line up and set up external monitors so those outside could see what happened inside.

"When is your supply ship to arrive?" asked Kalaktor.

"Later today, about the same time as our big staff meeting. Then tomorrow, we will cross our fingers that this jump drive works and that we understand the mechanics enough to get that to Sherman's planet without a hitch."

"Hitch? I am not familiar with that term?"

"With no other problem appearing more or less."

"Aah, yes agree."

"I am going to catch a few hours of sleep, see you at the meeting. Your ship today right?"

"Yes. Crew will not like it, but we will be using the holo room as the meeting room. Easy to set up that way."

"And the crews will actually have to find some work to do"

"Yes." He said with a grin.

Four hours later, the command crew of both ships met up on the Stormfront's Holo room which was configured for a large meeting room. Around the room were several charts and maps as well some pictures of individuals that were of importance due to the probes detections. The Federation Science office started the meeting.

"Fortunately we had a major intelligence coup with the main information gatherers of this alternate universe, Com-star. They never disabled the command codes for the Heavy Lance leader of the Human ship and thus we have been able to send inquires back to earth or Terra as they call it to get some information. Currently Earth is under the control of a splinter group of the ComStar known as the Word of Blake, a religious organization based on technology having mystical implications that they only can divine. Their beliefs are that they only should have access and restrict the spread or teach of technology to any outside their order. ComStar started off with this belief, but had over several years been more open to spreading and releasing their knowledge to the other powers. It is still an open planet, but heavy security on travel to it."

"There has been an attempt by several of the powers to recreate the legendary Star League, the power that was the height of this dimensions golden age. The main powers are the 5 great houses, The Lyran Alliance, of House Steiner, The Federated Suns under House Davion which is currently in an alliance as the Federated Commonwealth but segregated ironicly last year by the current ruler, the Draconis Combine under house Kurita, The Free Worlds League of House Marik and finally the Capellan Confederation of House Liao. Of these powers, the new Star League is founded on with House Kurita nominated the First Lord."

"The Motivation for this was the Clans, which turn out to be the returned original Star League in exile come back to take their rightful place. StarCom challenged them to a battle on a planet with the results being the Clans would not attack any more into the Inner sphere if they lost, and Terra to them if they won. They did loose and with not targets have seem to fallen on each other." He took a pause and looked around the room.

"To borrow the human term, they are a cluster fuck of a mess over there. They are on the verge of a massive recovery to a new golden age, or could come crashing down any moment. And truth be known, I do not think our saying hi would affect it one way or the other. They will pull it out, or not."

With that the Edoan sat down at the table. Kalaktor stood up, to address the table.

"Thank you Mr. Maltavis, Captain Monroe has been very generous and has allowed me to take the lead on the first contact and planning. I want to thank everyone who has helped me the last few days with coming up with a viable plan." He walked over to one of the charts and taped his fingers on an area. "the area around the Five Houses is called the Periphery, and these two right here are the most stable, the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordat. Both of these recently had a bit of an overthrow of parents by children who were a little more progressive and have benefited their people by the takeover."

He paused for a moment while still looking at the map.

"We have agreed to not tell the residents where the breach between our two realities is located, since it is well beyond their current living areas, but we are going to send a small message, once we enter, and about a week from arriving, we will let them know more about us. It is about a three week trip, so I am sure there will time to allow study on the inhabitants as well as their equipment." He added the last with a grin.

"On a serious note, this is a post space and exploration civilization. The Federation Prime Directive does not apply, nor does any rules the Klingon Empire currently have for pre-space civilizations. Technology exchanges will be run through both captains first before any discussion. And we agree that Sub-space communications at this time will be restricted just not to cause issues with the Word of Blake or the ComStar factions. We also will be using shuttles, to avoid reveling transporter technology to them, as it is an unknown. We also will not reveal the ship found, or how much we know from it. Just in case anyone decides to stake a claim on it. Let it be lost. We will not reveal Stormfronts' cloaking ability either."

"The supply ship Mugi will be here in about forty minutes, and I hope we can get all crew a rotation on their Arboretum, their crew has brought a resupply of fresh Klingon food as well as supplies and assistance to turn our existing holoroom into storage and make part of the larger store room into the new suite letting more people participate. Not only can you participate in some of the events, but you can also just watch and experience the battles. They have very good documentation and video that we have accessed to see the stories and tell the tales. See the history from their point of view. Questions?"

"Do we think this Clan will make an appearance?" asked Matongo the Palomino's first officer.

"Totally unknown at this time, with the time frame, it would not take them long to make a jump to us if there are recharging stations along the way and they will probably be more efficient at it than our attempt. The question would be will they be the representative or individual Clans and I really would not be surprised if some of the other major houses show up individually. That is why we want to keep the cloak as a secret back up and transporters."

"Monroe, do you have anything you would like to add?" asked Kalaktor taking a seat?

"If you're wondering why I am giving Kalaktor the lead, even though they are human, I feel they would have a hard time relating. Their war and machines and the passion for both I think that there will be a common interest and appreciation for that martial philosophy. So tomorrow at noon, our intrepid group will head for Sherman's planet. We re-supply and twenty four hours later, us and Stormfront will go through the opening and see what is beyond the looking glass. Any Questions?"

Palomino's Chief Engineer spoke up after clearing his throat.

"Captain, I have been approached by several members of our crew about designing one of these Mech's based on our Technology. Anti-matter engine, Ablative armor phasors or disruptors and I would love to but a Bat'leth on one of the hands with Duranium metal." Let them see what the cousins on the other side can come up with."

"We have been discussing that. And yes, we do have plans to put a "Cousin's on the other side" version we on the command level are discussing it, we actually are going to build on Stormfront a heavy Mech version. It will be built on the Stormfront Hanger though not in a standing as neither of our ships have the room for a standing version. So we will be engaging both engineer teams to come up with a design and get to show it off, we can learn from them, lets hope they can learn from us too."

"Captain, I would like to spend some time with their medical people and exchange learning." Said the Palomino's Chief medical officer T'Par.

"Complete Free sharing of medical information, to all parties, we plan to share our medical database with all parties and free to give to the others. We are also getting several library computers with the medical records of the Federation and Klingon Empires that we will distribute. One to the Magistrate which is one of the most advanced medical groups, One with the ComStar and one to whatever group we feel would best use it best."

"Acceptable." she said.

"Anything else? Ok, let's have a good send off for tonight, and have a lot of thought into designs for our own mech."

Captain Mason was on the Bridge of the Palomino when the USS Mugi herself pulled up to the three ships. The ship's Captain, Robert Thomas sent a greeting as soon as he pull up.

"Captain Monroe, pleasure to see you sir, got a strange find I see."

"Thank you Captain, your re-supply and crew replacements are a welcome sight."

"Thank you, we are about to deliver the Klingon crew and her supplies and we will start on you."

"Much appreciated, I understand your having a mixer this evening?"

"Yea…" it was drawn out "I guess it is only fair for all involved to be invited with this situation."

"Good, I hope to meet you there. Monroe out."

But unfortunately, things were not going well as he quickly found out. He got a call from his Cargo Chief thirty minutes later.

"What's the matter chief?"

"Captain, I cannot seem to get it through this supply officer for the Mugi that the Industrial Replicator is going to the Klingons."

"Put him on." Said Mason waiting.

"Lt. Stubbing sir, I think there must be some confusion. This is a Mk IV Industrial Replicator, not to go to any foreign nationals or powers." He said with a bit of attitude.

"That is true son, but if you have access to the main order, SFC Project Crossover 34569, CNC Starfleet has approved the install aboard IKV Stormfront for duration of this mission." Said Mason looking at his PADD with the orders, "Now I know you may not have the full orders, but please check with your command staff, I am sure they have them."

"But Sir, this is very important Technology…" the Lt. started.

"I know Lt. Please check with your command staff, or I will."

"One Moment, Sir." And he walked away from the com unit and Mason heard him contact his ship. A few moments later Mason hear him resume. "I am sorry, Sir, for the confusions, apparently my first officer did say that the unit is to be delivered to the Klingons, that did not come down to me and I apologize."

"No problem Lt. I know your just being diligent, but this is a very special case."

"Thank you, Sir, if you will excuse me I will get this transported to the Klingon ship."

"Thanks for your assistance Captain", said the Cargo Chief"…but I have the feeling orders and security are not the only things that were causing the issue."

"Not everyone sees this as an opportunity to work together Chief. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Mason out."

Ten Minutes later Kalaktor contacted him.

"Mason, I just wanted to let you know I heard some disturbing things from the replacements. Apparently they were escorted everywhere they went by security and were "encouraged" not to join the regular crew for Mess, but to eat in their quarters."

"Sorry Kalaktor, I have already had a bit of an encounter with that. I will try to speak to their Captain at the mixer, but if you will please pass my apology on to them for me."

"Thank you Mason, I know not everyone will have our history, but I am glad it is you we are working with."

"Same here old friend, Mason out."

Several hours later Mason arrived at the Mugi with his command staff in full dress uniform. The Mugi class had a huge arboretum on its starboard side with walks, and paths and the bonus of fresh gardens both of food and flowers. Crews were encouraged to come and pick fresh fruits and vegetables or to enjoy the scenic walk that not all smaller ship could afford to have. Several large windows showed the open space with the other three ships in the background. A large area was set up with seating and buffet style tables with various foods. The first thing the crew members noticed were the Palomino and Stormfront's crews were mingling and enjoying themselves, while the Mugi crew were on one side, many with glum and suspicious looks a few curious ones. Mason notice Captain Thomas leaving his group and joining him with a handshake.

"Captain Monroe, pleasure to meet you."

"Likewise Captain Thomas, I just want to thank you and your crew for helping me and Captain Kalaktor get ready for this mission. Your resupply of crew and equipment will make this very easy on us."

"I am glad to hear that, though I understand you had an issue with my Supply Lt. Stubbing."

"Man was just doing his duty, Captain, it was quickly resolved." Commented Monroe.

"Reginald and I met while in the Academy, I do not know if you knew this Captain, but we both lost family on the Grissom during the Genesis Incident, in fact we have quite a few crew from that incident and others with the Klingons, Usually Star Fleet has us on duty far away from the Klingon boarder to avoid any contact, but a case of "Only Ship in the Quadrant who can do this." He said.

"I am sorry Captain, I did not know your crew had a history, thank you for letting me know."

"I wish I could say I am sorry, but even I have a very hard time having them on my ship and not worrying." He sighed.

"Understood, maybe it's time for a little story." Said Mason as he walked over to a Podium that had been set up near the front. Taking a deep breath he stood up and activated the mic on it.

"Excuse me folks, I just wanted to take a moment to thank the Crew of the Mugi for their hospitality and help with the venture we are about to embark on. I also want to thank my crew and the crew of the Stormfront for the work they have done preparing for the mission. I understand a little tension right now, but I wanted to tell you folks a story. As many of you know the Warrior ability and determination of the Klingons, but I today want to tell you of the Honor and sacrifice that they have made that allows me to be here before you today."

"Eleven years ago, I was a Lt. on Starbase 3 working security for the Romulan and Triangle Sector. We began hearing rumors of something going to happen in the Baker's Dozen, the Affiliation of Free Worlds and rumors had it that the Romulan were up to something. I was sent to investigate and apparently the Romulan were upset by the AOFW's decision to allow the Klingons to continue to work at the Preserver site of Colil. Also the Klingons lead scientist was really the guy who was making some headway on some of the power units that were found and causing some stirs form the Romulan worrying that the tech would not be shared no matter how much the AOFW promised. I had been on planet no more than three or four days before I got a message to meet at a local bar frequented by mixed races for laborers."

"I got in the seat that I was told to meet in and within 30 seconds three Klingons joined me." He took a pause and one of the servers brought him some water. He thanked him and continued after taking a few sips.

"I did not let anyone know where I was going, so I figured I would be a body found the next day but the oldest of the three Klingons greeted me softly and said he knew I was looking into a Romulan Plot. He and his team also knew something was up and asked to join forces. The Older one introduced himself as Klarn, and his two associates Kalaktor and Zeran. I had heard stories of Klingons from my father and father in law who were both veterans of the Four Year War so I was not prepared for this. We bought drinks, we talked about the situation, and within an hour I agreed to team up with them. It was a no brainer, they had information I did not, I had some information they did not and we had some shared that really had us concerned."

"At the time we both agreed the incident would happen in about three weeks when a big announcement would be taken place on the planet. And we learned that the Romulan's were going to use a Klingon Nerve agent they had acquired to place the blame on the Klingons. One of the Romulan Scientist had warned a friend who was a Klingon, to watch when most of the Romulan Scientist were switched out. That would be the sign things were about to go south. I sent a quick message to my handler, going under and working with Klingons, watch for Romulan Staff Rotation for onset of incident."

"For the next three weeks, we watched and observed and finally found a AOFW commander who was under pay by the Romulan's and would be the source of getting the agent on planet. We watched him, got to all know each other and debated what to do. Notify our governments to be ready and catch the Romulan in the act, or try to prevent the delivery of the agent to prevent any deaths. When we found out when the staff switch was happening, we were also able to verify the agent was to be delivered that night. We decided to go for it, once we found out where the transaction was going to take place we notified our government's people and the AOFW Special Forces and laid our trap."

"Kalaktor and I went in, weapons drawn and recorded the transaction with the AOFW commander and the Romulan "Science Advisor" to the planet and once the transaction was done, we sprung to action. We stunned the two doing the transaction but their backups quickly rallied and fought back, I took a nasty hit to my Achilles on my right leg from a disrupter and made it impossible to run. We knew several of the Romulans were trying to set off the Canisters ahead of time to kill everyone in the area including themselves with the plot in ruins, and I gave Kalaktor my recorder and told him to make sure it got to the right people and would cover his retreat. I laid down a withering round with my phaser and a disrupter I got off a fallen Romulan to give Kalaktor an escape, and then a minute later I heard a roar as all three of the Klingon agents ran back in and back to me."

"I was confused, they had their escape, why were they back. Klarn gripped my shoulders and looked me in the eyes. 'I am sorry Earther, but I am not letting you go to the Black Fleet before me, at my age I do not have many battles left and you are expecting a son. I have no progeny, you have a son coming. Celebrate his life and remember mine.' With that he order Kalaktor and Zeran to take me out, took both weapons and gave us all three cover fire to get out. The last thing I saw was a small explosion as one of the canisters burst and of Klarn standing there firing two weapons as the door sealed yelling to Kahless to prepare a place for him."

About that time the AOWF security forces arrived, took the rest of us in custody and we provided the information to them about the exchange and the plot. Publicly we were denounced for interfering with AOWF internal affairs, but secretly we were praised by Willis Baker and his daughter Kellie and each giving an award for valor. And for the first time I joined the Klingons in observing the death of a warrior when Klarn's Body was recovered I joined his companions in the death ritual and shouting to the sky."

Mason looked around and saw that he had the rapt attention of everyone including the Mugi's crew on the story. He took another deep drink of water before continuing.

"The Klingons are warriors, they fight with their whole heart and spirit, it is what makes them. But know that they are also a honorable, and devoted to duty and friends alike. I was able to be there for my son's birth and he carries with honor the name of Kenneth Klarn Mason, named for the man who saved his father."


	7. Chapter 7 - The Crossover

Chapter 6 – The Crossing

The next day the Magellan was ready to power up and launch as the crew meet up with the captains on the bridge of the Jump Ship. Warn and his crew were in high spirits and had gone through the ship the day before from one end to the other and ready. Monroe and Kalaktor were watching as they made their last minute preparations.

"Solar sails all show to be batten down and all hatches secure, Docking collars on the drop ships show secure and positive integrity." Said Suarez.

"Navigational computers are locked in to coordinates of Sherman System, Jump Engines report all positive for energy requirements and launch." Said Ursala from her Navigation station.

"Begin 20 minute clock, all members not going to Sherman World, please disembark or you will miss your chance to cross to another galaxy." Said Warn with a grin.

"Warn, Good luck to you and your crew." Said Monroe with a shake of his hand. "I hate that what will be moments for you will be three hours for us to hear of your success.

"Thank you Captain Monroe, for both trusting your own crew to my leadership and the opportunity to take this ship back with your confidence in me." He said returning the shake.

"Success to you and your house for the mission." Monroe said stepping back as Kalaktor stepped forward.

"Warn, you have served with honor on the Stormfront, you have proved to be a leader and I know your continued success will prove my trust in you, Kapla!"

"Kapla!, Captain, your trust and the opportunity will be carried with honor and I will continue to do my best to show this is a trust I can carry."

The two captains quickly said their farewells to the rest of the team before beaming over to the Stormfront to watch the launch. The Palomino, Stormfront and Mugi all moved about 2 kilometers away in a triangle around the ship to record from different angles. As they arrived at the bridge, the timer was counting down on the display in both Klingon and Terran. Kalaktor took his seat as Monroe stood behind him.

"By the way, your speech last night, seemed to have an effect on the Mugi's crew. After you gave it they seemed to thaw a bit, I even had their chief of security come over and apologize for the way they treated my replacements. If fact he came over today to look at what we have done with the Holo suite and the Mech's we have found."

"Good, I had a few of them come up to me though I did see a few who totally avoided me with glares, but they were a lot softer than when we first came in."

"They have asked to get the specs and programing we have already done as well as a copy of the Magellan's data banks. They want to work some on the other ships and aero craft from the other side."

"We will start a trend." Laughed Monroe. "So we want to plan to cross in 4 hours, give three to find out how our crew over there did, and then an hour later, cross over?"

"That is a good plan. It will be a two week journey to the Taurent Concordance, and we will start transmitting about the 4th day so they cannot easily find the entrance back here." Said Kalaktor.

"Probably still want to set a probe or two nearby incase after the mission they do come to visit our side." Said Monroe.

"If they even like us"

"True."

They paused as the countdown reached Zero and the Magellan disappeared.

"I may go down and take a quick run in the hanger and see how the design team is going," said Monroe "and may run by the Holo suite and take a run."

"They will be OK, you know."

"I know, but I want to avoid idle hands in case I start thinking about it to much when there's not a thing we can do." Said Monroe exiting the bridge.

The Captain made his way down the length of the Klingon ship to the Hanger bay, where he found several of the federation and Klingon engineers working on the joint mech design. They decided to modify a known design from the other side instead of create on from scratch and both teams agreed the Archer class of Heavy Mech would be perfect for the job. The machine laid out on the deck taking um most of the hanger with it basic frame built and the artificial muscles being applied now.

"Captain, coming down to look at our creation " asked one of the Federation engineers who was looking at the knee joint."

"I am Lt. how goes the build?"

"She is going good. The duiranium alloy that the Klingons use is much stronger than our regular duranium, lord knows your you pronounce it though, but will be a lot stronger than anything the other side has seen, and we are thinking of trying to armor it in a Carbon Ferrous Quantabarilium weave to give it some more endurance."

"Quantrabarilium? Was that not used on some of the early Federation Dreadnought designs?"

"It was sir, very durable, had the ability to spread the damage and asorbe it, but also meant had to almost replace the whole hull if a ship went into battle. But since most of these have the armor replaced each battle, I think they are perfect for our need."

The captain walked over to where the head cockpit was being built, "Keeping the same design that the ones we saw on the Magellan had?"

"Yes sir, someone from that side would be able to just plop in and run her as well as us. We have added a small interactive computer system, some voice operations, and of course shields. Should take several good hits from a PPC or missile barrage before your armor starts taking wear."

"What about the weapons?"

"several M/AM warheads in the rack, we went with a 15 guided missiles burst on each side, with storage for 6 salvos total, that the Klingons are doing, and we are working on two medium range phaser's in each arm. We are also working on two shoulder mounted anti-missile mounted phaser or disrupter mounted units for defense possibly depending on weight and heat.

"I am impressed looks like you have it all worked out. Have you uploaded the stats for the unit to the Holo Suite in the cargo bay?"

"We sure have, sir, lots of fun to playing with it and testing with several of the older style units. Has giving us Ideas for some of the other classes."

"Thank you Lt, I think I will head up and give this unit a try, have not really played in any of them yet so any recommendations?"

"Start off with a smaller unit, get the feel before you jump to the big one sir, at least two rounds in them or a medium."

"Keep that in mind, thank you." The captain took one last look at the Mech before heading to the cargo area.

Victor Montongo, the Palomino's First officer was sitting at his desk in his cabin reviewing ship reports. It was his habit to catch a four hour nap after his shift, do ship work and then spend some personal time before finishing ship work and the last 4 hours sleeping before start of his shift. He was about to prepare for that last sleep before his shift and to find out how the joint crew did on their trip back with the Magellan. He was signing off on the last of his reports when he heard the door chime alert him to a visitor.

"Enter" he said standing up and approaching the door. Dr. T'Par, ships doctor came in wearing a Kimono she had purchased on Earth during a visit, her red hair down around her shoulders, and a sheen of sweet was visible on her forehead.

"T'Par, are you ok, you look distressed." He said rushing up to her and she reached out and pulled him close with a passionate kiss that left him startled and very pleased at the same time from the usually reserved Vulcan.

"I am so sorry, Victor, I know we were planning for this to take place in a few more months, but apparently I have entered the Pon'Far early….I hope our preparations are adequate." She said taking his hands and leading him to the sleeping quarters.

"T"Par are you sure, about this, we will be bonded going forward, I know I am ready and willing."

"And I too, since Sator was lost, no other male has stimulated me intellectually and physically as much as you have." She said pulling his shirt over his head and rubbing her hand across his dark chest before looking him in the eye. "I do want this."

They knelt before each other and put their fingers on each other's temples at the Kat'ra points and together they began to chant, "My mind to your mind, our thoughts as one…."

Soon they memories began to flow between them. His youth as a Zulu in Africa, his family worked in a Natural Preserve that still worked to maintain the life and existence of animals in a natural habitat of Africa. His work to join Starfleet and his career to get where he was. He saw her life on Vulcan her training in the medical field and the feeling of her first marriage and the loss of her husband as his ships life support failed.

Their own recent relationship. His interest in Vulcan and a trip there for his next survival trip, several late dinners discussing the trip and their quickly growing affections. He felt their bodies join as their minds already had, two as one. He felt her presence take a place in his mind, as he experience her emotions and feelings.

Afterwards he laid on his back, still amazed by the feeling of her in his mind.

"So this is what it feels to be bonded. Amazing. No wonder most Vulcan couples I know are so close." He said.

"It is a special feeling" she said "And I really enjoy sharing it with you."

"And I you," he said leaning forward and kissing her. She returned the kiss and rose to straddle him.

"I know you usually sleep at this time, but I am afraid this evening I will be throwing your sleep schedule off." She said huskily.

The Captain was on the bridge when the Communications officer announced an incoming communication from Sherman's Planet.

"Put it on the main screen." He said turning to the main bridge viewer.

"Palomino and Stormfront, this is Supervisor O'Brian of Sherman Planet Unified studies, we wanted to let you know your crew on the Magellan arrived safely and are all ok, some minor nausea but that passed soon. Acting Captain Warn also sent high praises for both crews who assisted."

The display changed to a view of space as the ship appeared in a blink much like how it disappeared. As the image continued with both Federation and Klingon shuttles approaching the ship and tugs ready to move the ship to a orbital safe place the commentary continued.

"We plan to take the drop ships off and lower them to terra firma and unload the Mecha and examine them more closely. We wish you the best of luck on your trip and we hope to see what other things you bring back from your trip. Sherman Planet out."

"Well, that is some good news indeed, makes the next step kick off with a good start." He said looking at his First officer.

"There was always a risk, unknown tech, but that is part of our job, so I guess we are ready to take the next step?" Victor asked.

"Indeed, let Stormfront and Mugi know we will be ready to depart in an hour." Said Monroe pressing the communication button on his chair "Medical, begin distributing the spacial antidote to the crew we are about to go through the rift to the other side in an hour."

"Affirmative Captain," replied T'par.

One hour later, both ships lined up to enter the rift in space. Palomino led the way as both crew followed by the Stormfront. Both crew felt a light headed disorientation as their ships entered the rift, but it soon passed as they looked at a similar space scene on the other side. USS Mugi waited till the ships had passed through and the Drone that had been on the other side went back through and sent the "All's Well" from the crews before heading off to their next re-supply mission.

Monroe and Kalaktor both agreed to wait till they were at least a day away before opening communications. They set a course to the Taurian Concordat a trip of about a week . Both captains sent a joint message to the leadership of the Taurian Concordat knowing that the message would be picked up by the group controlling the Hyperspace terminals. Two days later, they received a message back that they were welcome to enter Taurian Concordat space and were welcomed to stay as long as they wanted.

First of all I am sorry so long for the delay in writing, had a major project at work that was taking up a lot of my time, but got a lot less stressful time coming up so maybe I will get the last of this story written this summer. Thank you all for following and your comments, they have been very helpful and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.


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